Britain herself was a constitutional monarchy, where much was done in the colonies in the name of the Crown irrespective of the actual views of the monarch. Even in Europe, the unification of Germany and Italy in the 19th century had only strengthened the idea of a strong nation-state under a monarch. Around the world, other than Haiti and the United States, there was almost no example of a post-colonial republic anywhere. In short, there was no popular consensus that India should be independent of the British crown. Gandhi was not yet back in India, “purna swarajya” was not even in the political lexicon, and even the Home Rule League was yet to be launched. At the time of Jana Gana Mana’s writing in 1911, hardly anyone foresaw an India outside the British umbrella. Tagore’s emphasis in Jana Gana Mana – of the multitudes deriving power “dei gratia” from the Almighty is remarkable. “Ganarajya”, and as a political system viz. The modern Hindi word for republic in both its connotations as a State viz. It had to only look to the Sanskrit word “Gana” or assembly of men, a word derived from an ancient practice of egalitarianism. Thus, India did not need to look for a foreign word to translate “republic” into Indian languages in 1950. Under the Cholas, village assemblies called sabhas were governed by committees that were elected by drawing lots or by rotation.
Republican ideals co-existed with monarchies in some parts of India. Republican states in ancient India such as Vaishali were ruled by Ganasabhas, which unlike ancient republics of the West such as Athens or Rome, were not limited to a few families and consisted of all adults in the State. Despite being known as the land of Maharajas and Nawabs, the Indic civilization’s republican credentials cannot be overlooked. The reference of the “multitudes” deriving their authority from a “divine shaper of destiny” resonates with the idea of a republic. From its inception, Jana Gana Mana was a rebellion in verse. In other words, in referring to “Bharat Bhagya Vidhata”, Tagore mocked that any mortal could claim to rule India. Tagore also said later that Jana Gana Mana hails the “(the) Dispenser of India's destiny who guides, through all rise and fall, the wayfarers, He who shows the people the way.". That Lord of Destiny, that Reader of the Collective Mind of India, that Perennial Guide, could never be George V, George VI, or any other George”. Tagore explained that the song pronounced “the victory of Bharat Bhagya Vidhata who has, age after age, held steadfast the reins of India’s chariot through rise and fall, through the straight path and the curved. Tagore wrote to his editor Pulin Behari Sen in 1937 explaining the circumstances in which he had composed Jana Gana Mana. Thus, Tagore the spiritual nationalist found the idea of praising any mortal- least of all a foreign monarch- as the purveyor of India’s destiny revolting. By 1911, Tagore was also deeply spiritual in his writing, as testified by the allegories in Gitanjali published the previous year.
But Tagore was a staunch nationalist at heart, a man who had composed the tune to Vande Mataram which animated the protests against the partition of Bengal in 1905.
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